Do Games Have to Be Fun? – Extra Punctuation

do video games have to be fun extra punctuation yahtzee croshaw
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This week on Extra Punctuation, Yahtzee explores the age-old question — do video games have to be fun?

Extra Punctuation Transcript

Do games have to be fun? Oh blimey. Six words in and already we’re in the tentacles of a semantic kraken. What do we even mean by “fun?” For that matter, what do we mean by “have to be?” Nobody HAS to do anything. No one’s holding a gun to anyone’s head. No doctrines from the United Nations will place sanctions on international trading if your game isn’t fun. A better question might be “If it wants to maximise broadness of appeal, positive critical response and sales, would a game be well advised to be fun?” I suppose. But broad appeal isn’t always what a creator is shooting for, necessarily.

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Author
Yahtzee Croshaw
Yahtzee is the Escapist’s longest standing talent, having been writing and producing its award winning flagship series, Zero Punctuation, since 2007. Before that he had a smattering of writing credits on various sites and print magazines, and has almost two decades of experience in game journalism as well as a lifelong interest in video games as an artistic medium, especially narrative-focused. He also has a foot in solo game development - he was a big figure in the indie adventure game scene in the early 2000s - and writes novels. He has six novels published at time of writing with a seventh on the way, all in the genres of comedic sci-fi and urban fantasy. He was born in the UK, emigrated to Australia in 2003, and emigrated again to California in 2016, where he lives with his wife and daughters. His hobbies include walking the dog and emigrating to places.